Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Hanlon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Emily, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
I write murder mysteries, The Martha and Marya Mystery series. The most unique part of my craft – that which sets me apart from others- is that 100% of my profits go to charity. Books aren’t cheap these days, even eBooks, and I myself have hesitated and then not clicked on the Amazon “Buy Now” button for a book I was interested in reading. How better to get someone to finish that click than the knowledge that that a good chunk of the money will go to charity.
Now I know that everyone can’t afford to do that – I started writing late in life after a reasonably successful career and so, when my first book, Who Am I To Judge?, A Martha and Marya Mystery, was published in March 2023, I was in the fortunate position of not needing additional income. I decided I would give all profits from my writing to charity. One of my detectives — Martha, the sidekick — is a member of a very worthy charity, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which provides much-needed services to needy members of their communities, so I decided to dedicate the profits from my book to my local St. Vincent de Paul Conference. Then it dawned on me that I had found a focus to my marketing approach. I reached out to the national and regional councils of the Society who featured and reviewed me in their various publications, and it seems to have been successful. Who Am I to Judge came out as an Amazon #1 new release and #8 in sales for Contemporary Christian fiction.
I have donated my profits up to this point to The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. I chose them mainly because I am a long time member, but also because I have fashioned Martha, one of my sleuths, as a member of the society. Both the local and the international SVdP have supported me with interviews and stories about the book in their newsletters.
Emily, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’ve always loved reading murder mysteries and often thought that I wanted to write one. The inspiration that caused me to sit down and start was an article about the top best-selling books of all time. The top two were the Bible and Shakespeare, but Agatha Christie was a close third. (I’m sure she’s been supplanted by Harry Potter by now.) As a faithful churchgoer, I thought it would be great if, while reading a good murder mystery, the reader could learn a bit about religious mysteries. And so was born Marya Cook, the ditzy, Bible quoting, lavender clad, octogenarian whose illogical logic disguises a mind laser-focused on the truth.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being a writer is…writing!
Being a creative is the most self-indulgent thing I have ever done done my life. When I sit down to write, (if I’m not on a deadline) I lose all track of time. I will look up 2 hours later shocked that so much time has passed, and say to myself “oh just 15 more minutes”, then look up again an hour later. I can only compare it to my first massage.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as “a creative” until fairly recently, but it certainly is a good descriptor.. Writing is a little like being God – creating something out of nothing..
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Every author needs to be resilient because we all have to deal with rejection.
So I figured I was doing something wrong and hired an editor to read my book. He had all kinds of helpful suggestions, but one day I got a phone call from him — we never communicated by phone, only email. He announced he had a “come to Jesus” moment for me — there was too much Jesus in my book; it could never be published as is; and referred me to a mystery with the “acceptable” amount of religion. I considered his suggestion, but couldn’t do it. After all, I wrote the book to share the joys and the mysteries of my church with the readers of my murder mystery. He suggested self-publishing. It was a good option, but not for someone with my low level of technological capability. I decided to try to find a publisher of religious books and, through the Catholic Writers Guild, I learned about Chrism Press and inked a contract with them for three books in the Martha and Marya Mystery series. The second book in the series, A Cloud of Witnesses, will be released in March!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.emily-hanlon.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/hanlon.emily
- Facebook: facebook.com/emilyhanlonauthor
Image Credits
Elizabeth Van Os